Golf fashion has genuinely gotten better. The brands have improved, the fits have gotten more modern, and the days of mandatory pleated khakis are mostly behind us.

But it’s still a dangerous landscape. One wrong move and you show up looking like you’re closing a software deal, filling in as a JV baseball coach, or cosplaying as a TOUR pro at a tournament you’re not in. None of these are the look.

Here’s how to avoid all of them.

Fit Matters More Than Brand

A $40 polo that fits well will always look better than a $140 polo that doesn’t. This is the rule that overrides everything else. Shirts should sit at the shoulder seam, not drape off it. Pants should break cleanly at the shoe, not bunch up around the ankle like you borrowed them from a larger man.

Before you spend another dollar on golf clothes, go through what you have and figure out what actually fits. The answer is probably less than you think.

Stop Wearing Tournament Polos From 2016

The logos have gotten smaller. The fabrics have gotten better. The cuts have gotten more modern. If you’re still wearing a shirt from a golf event eight years ago  especially one with a giant logo across the chest – it’s time to let it go.

You can hold onto the memory. The shirt can go. 

Neutral Colors Beat Loud Prints

The loudest guy on the tee is not always the most stylish. Navy, white, grey, olive, tan – these work. They photograph well. They look intentional. They don’t clash with each other or with your playing partners.

If you want to add color, add it in one piece and keep the rest muted. A great pair of red shorts with a clean white polo is a look. Red shorts, a blue-and-yellow print polo, and orange shoes is not a look. It’s a situation.

Brand we like: Quiet Golf

Your Shoes Say More Than You Think

Golf shoes have never been better – lighter, more versatile, more stylish — but the default for a lot of guys is still a clunky white shoe from 2018 with brown leather accents and a heel counter the size of a doorstop. If your shoes look like they belong on a construction foreman, get new shoes.

FootJoy, G/Fore, Adidas, Nike, TRUE Linkswear – there are options at every price point that look clean and perform well. It’s worth the investment.

One Statement Piece Max

Hat, belt, shoes, watch – pick one thing to do something interesting with and keep everything else quiet. A good hat in a great color. A belt with a distinctive buckle. A shoe with a clean colorblock. One. Not all of them at once.

The guys who look effortlessly sharp on a golf course have almost always internalized this rule, even if they couldn’t articulate it.

Brand we like: Devereux

Golf Clothes Should Still Look Normal Off The Course

If you’d be embarrassed to stop for lunch on the way home from the course, the outfit isn’t working. Modern golf apparel is designed to be worn in both contexts – a great polo, a clean pair of chinos or shorts, good shoes. You should be able to walk from the 18th green to a restaurant without changing.

If you need to change first, you’re wearing something that’s either too technical, too logoed, or too aggressively sporty. Dial it back.

Brand we like: Sun Day Red

You don’t need to become Bryson DeChambeau. You don’t need to add 30 pounds of muscle or start talking about ball speed at dinner or buy a new driver every eight months.

But if you want more distance – and everyone wants more distance – your body has to be able to do a few things well. Rotate. Stabilize. Produce speed in the right sequence. Most weekend golfers can’t, not because they don’t practice, but because they’ve never trained the specific physical qualities the golf swing actually demands.

These five additions to your routine will help.

1. Medicine Ball Rotational Throws

The golf swing is a rotational power movement. If you want to hit it farther, you need to train rotational power – not just mobility, not just strength, but explosive rotation. Medicine ball throws against a wall (or with a partner) are the most direct way to do this.

Stand sideways to a wall, load into your back hip, and throw the ball through the same sequence your golf swing uses. Start light (6–8 lbs), go fast, and do it both directions. Ten reps per side, three sets. This is the single most transferable exercise for golf distance.

2. Split Squats

Lower body stability is what lets you transfer force from the ground up through your swing. Without it, you leak power everywhere. The split squat – rear foot elevated or flat – builds single-leg strength and hip stability in the exact positions your body moves through on the downswing.

Don’t skip these in favor of regular squats. The unilateral load is what makes them relevant to golf. Three sets of eight per leg, controlled on the way down.

3. Romanian Deadlifts

Your glutes and hamstrings are the engine of your swing. Most golfers don’t train them properly because most gym programs are built around pushing, not hinging. The Romanian deadlift loads the posterior chain and teaches your body to generate force from the hips – which is exactly what a good downswing does.

Keep the weight manageable, prioritize the hip hinge pattern, and feel the stretch in your hamstrings at the bottom. Three sets of ten.

4. Thoracic Spine Rotations

Most people’s upper backs are stiff from sitting at a desk, looking at phones, and living like a person in 2026. A stiff thoracic spine limits your ability to rotate away from the ball and creates compensations that rob you of power and consistency.

Spend three minutes before every round and every workout on thoracic rotations: thread-the-needle, open books, seated rotations with a club. You don’t need a lot of time. You just need to do it consistently.

5. Band Pull-Aparts And Face Pulls

Shoulder health isn’t glamorous but it matters. Golfers are chronically overdeveloped in the front of the shoulder and underdeveloped in the rear — because swinging a club is a forward-biased movement and most people never train the back of the shoulder.

Band pull-aparts and face pulls fix this imbalance, keep the rotator cuff healthy, and let you swing hard without falling apart by August. Do 20 pull-aparts as a warm-up. Three sets of 15 face pulls. Make it a habit.

You don’t need an overhaul. Add these five movements to what you’re already doing, be consistent for eight weeks, and your swing will have a better physical foundation than 90% of the people you play with. The distance comes from the work.

A guys golf trip sounds perfectly innocent. Four days, some golf, a few steaks, some guys you genuinely like. What could possibly go wrong?

A lot, as it turns out. Not because golf is the problem, but because most guys handle the logistics of a trip the same way they handle everything else – impulsively and without nearly enough communication.

Here’s how to go on the trip and still be welcomed home when it’s over.

1. Don’t Announce The Trip After It’s Already Booked

This is the single biggest mistake guys make. You book flights, you book tee times, you book the rental house – and then you tell her. At that point it’s not a conversation, it’s a notification. She’s not going to feel good about that, and she’s right not to.

The trip doesn’t have to be her idea. It just has to be a conversation she was included in before money changed hands. This is a small thing. Do it.

2. Don’t Pretend It’s “Basically A Work Thing”

It’s not a work thing. You know it’s not a work thing. She knows it’s not a work thing. Framing it as anything other than what it is – four days away with your friends doing something you love – makes it weird and a little insulting.

“I want to go on a golf trip with the guys” is a fully defensible statement that requires no spin. Lead with that.

3. Give Real Numbers

Dates. Cost. All of it. Vague answers (“it’s probably around $1,200 or so, depends on how things shake out”) are worse than real numbers even when the real numbers are higher than she’d like. Uncertainty is harder to plan around than a specific number she can actually evaluate.

Tell her what it costs. Tell her exactly when you’re leaving and when you’re back. She can work with that. She can’t work with “sometime around Thursday.”

4. Don’t Come Home Useless

You had four days off. You played golf, you ate well, you slept in a bed with no one kicking you. Now you’re back.

The dishes don’t know you were gone. The laundry doesn’t care. The kids definitely don’t. Come home ready to be a functioning participant in your own life. If you need 48 hours of recovery time after a guys trip, you did the guys trip wrong.

5. Bring Something Back That Isn’t A Hangover And A Quarter-Zip

You don’t have to spend a lot. A bottle of something she likes, a restaurant reservation for the week you get back, flowers if you’re going to do flowers. The specific thing matters less than the fact that you thought about it.

“I was away for four days and I thought about you while I was there” is a simple message to send, and it does a lot of work.

Here’s the honest truth about guys golf trips: they’re good for you. They’re good for your relationship. Four days with your friends, away from routine, doing something you love – that’s not a threat to your relationship, it’s a deposit into it. Just handle the details like an adult and you’ll be back on the course next year.

U.S. Women’s Open

The women’s golf was awesome yesterday.

The leaderboard was tight from the start of play on Sunday, with seven players just two strokes off the lead, and Charley Hull, one of the LPGA’s biggest stars, just three strokes back.

Charley got off to a blistering start and charged into the lead in the middle of the round before making a bogey on the 14th.

Her miss dropped her to -6 and left Gabby Lopez, In Gee Chun, S.Y. Kim, and Nelly Korda all tied for the lead at 7-under.

Hull was able to bounce back with a birdie on the 17th and grab a share of the lead. Gabby Lopez birdied the 18th, and they both went into the clubhouse to watch Nelly Korda finish.

They watched on TV while Nelly Korda made birdie on the 17th hole to take a one-stroke lead. On the final hole, Korda hit a perfect tee shot, followed by a safe approach shot into the middle of the 18th green.

She two-putted for par and won the U.S. Women’s Open by a stroke, but we were this close to a three-way playoff:

The Memorial Tournament

We didn’t get a playoff at Riviera, but we did get one at Jack’s place.

The Memorial Tournament also featured a jam-packed leaderboard on Sunday.

At one point, there was a five-way tie on the back nine at 11-under.

That group was Wyndham Clark, Tommy Fleetwood, Sam Burns, Ryan Gerard, and JT Poston.

By the time the dust settled, it was Poston and Gerard who were the last two men standing. Gerard almost won it in regulation, but JT Poston made a clutch birdie on the 72nd hole to send it to a playoff.

They played the 18th, both made par, so they played it again.

This time, Gerard would bogey, leaving JT Poston an easy par putt to seal it.

With his victory, JT collected a $4 million check, along with spots in the U.S. Open and The Open this year.

He also gets to avoid playing in Golf’s Longest Day today.

What’s Next?

The RBC Canadian Open.

Odds: RBC Canadian Open

Player Odds
Tommy Fleetwood +1150
Matt Fitzpatrick +1175
Sam Burns +1300
Collin Morikawa +2250
Robert MacIntyre +2400
Wyndham Clark +2500
Justin Rose +2700
Brooks Koepka +2800
Nicolai Hojgaard +2900
Viktor Hovland +2900

Russell Henley looked like he was running out of holes.

He saved par on the 15th, but found himself three back with three to play.

Henley proceeded to finish regulation at Colonial with three straight birdies – then rolled in a 5-footer on the first playoff hole to beat Eric Cole and claim his sixth PGA Tour win.

That’s four consecutive birdies to finish the day, for the mathematicians out there.

He made two fifteen footers, one from seventeen feet, and the final from about five.

Sometimes the putter really can be like a magic wand.

Now he gets to drive this awesome car around.

What about everybody else?

 

Henley’s late heater was brutal news for Eric Cole, who was chasing his first PGA Tour victory. Cole had it right there, but he parred his final seven holes of regulation – eight if you count the playoff – and watched Henley come take it from him.

Meanwhile, Ben Griffin gave it a proper run with a final-round 65, but came up one shot short of a chance to do something only Ben Hogan has done: win back-to-back tournaments at Colonial.

Griffin, Alex Smalley, and Mac Meissner all finished at 11 under, one behind the Henley-Cole playoff.

What’s Next?

 

The Memorial Tournament at Jack’s place.

Odds: Memorial Tournament

 

  • Scottie Scheffler: +285

  • Rory McIlroy: +920

  • Cameron Young: +1300

  • Xander Schauffele: +1750

  • Ludvig Aberg: +1950

  • Matt Fitzpatrick: +2050

  • Si Woo Kim: +2250

  • Russell Henley: +2600

  • Patrick Cantlay: +2600

  • Tommy Fleetwood: +2700

All weekend, we waited for someone to separate from the pack.

And at the start of play on Sunday, there were 11 major winners within 6 shots of the lead. Surely, one of them would step up, post a low score, and bring this thing home.

Well, none of the major winners in the field stepped up, but Aaron Rai, wearing two gloves, rocking iron covers, and using giant tees that he bought off an infomercial, certainly did.

And what’s truly incredible about his victory, is that in a world of ball rollback debates, set-up arguments, and distance, distance, distance – Aaron Rai just won a major as the 160th ranked driver on TOUR.

Aronimink was set up to reward driving accuracy over distance, and great putting.

Aaron Rai did both better than anyone in the field, and it allowed him the separate.

By the way, he was a 150-1 longshot.

What about everybody else?

 

Alex Smalley, who went into Sunday as the clubhouse leader, shot even par, and finished T2.

Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas, Cam Smith, and Ludvig Aberg all tried to make a push, but no one could gain ground on Rai’s back nine performance.

However, this week, I think we need to focus on what “everybody else” had to say about Aaron Rai. As it turns out, Rai has earned a ton of respect among his peers.

Massive congrats to Aaron Rai. Such a nice guy and hard worker. Makes me want to work harder, and makes me believe that I can win majors as well. – Michael Kim

You won’t find one person on property who’s not happy for him. – Rory McIlroy.

What’s Next?

 

Scottie Scheffler headlines the field at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson at TPC Craig Ranch.

Odds For TPC Craig Ranch

  • Scottie Scheffler: +150

  • Si Woo Kim: +1250

  • Jordan Spieth: +2000

  • Brooks Koepka: +2700

  • Keith Mitchell: +3300

  • Pierceson Coody: +4000

  • Michael Thorbjornsen: +4100

  • Aaron Rai: +4200

  • Wyndham Clark: +4700

A mix of courtroom golf drama, rollback panic that may or may not matter, Anthony Kim doing Anthony Kim things, and Jim Furyk trying to rebuild the U.S. Ryder Cup machine before Ireland.

→ Tiger’s Prescription Records Are Staying Behind Closed Doors
Tiger Woods will have to turn over prescription records as part of the investigation into his March traffic crash, but the public won’t get to see them. A Florida judge ruled the records can be shared with a limited group tied to the case, not dumped into the public-records circus. So yes, the legal drama continues — just with fewer documents for everyone to screenshot. (defector.com)

→ Cameron Young Is Playing the Future Ball and Still Nuking It
Cameron Young is using a ball that would likely conform to the coming rollback rules, and the big punchline is that it has basically made zero difference. It was built to help him control spin, not necessarily to prepare for the rollback, and he’s still averaging the same 302.7 yards off the tee. If the plan was to scare bombers into submission, this probably isn’t the example the USGA wanted. (Golf Channel)

→ Anthony Kim Is Back in the Top 200 and Still Doesn’t Care What You Think
Anthony Kim shot a final-round 62 at LIV Golf Virginia, finished T6, helped win a team playoff, and climbed back into the OWGR top 200 for the first time in 14 years. Then he reminded everyone he is not exactly losing sleep over public opinion. The comeback is getting real — and AK is still very much AK. (Golf)

→ Jim Furyk Wants to Fix Team USA Before Team USA Breaks Again
Jim Furyk is already looking at how the U.S. Ryder Cup team gets built for 2027, and he sounds ready to mess with the formula. With money now warping basically everything in pro golf, Furyk doesn’t think earnings are the clean measuring stick they used to be. Expect simulations, tweaks, and probably the same six captain’s picks — because Team USA needs more than vibes if it wants to win in Ireland. (golfdigest.com)

Brandt Snedeker Reminds Us Why This Stuff Still Rules

According to Josh Schrock of GOLF.com, Brandt Snedeker’s win at Myrtle Beach was not just another opposite-field PGA TOUR title. It was his first victory in 2,821 days, came after years of injuries, doubt, conditional status, and experimental surgery, and ended with Snedeker breaking down in his caddie’s arms after Mark Hubbard missed a putt that would have forced a playoff. This is the kind of stuff golf still does better than almost any sport: a 45-year-old grinding for one more shot, getting it, and immediately turning into a puddle. Real stakes. Real emotion. Real golf. (Golf)

D.C. Public Golf Is Now a Political Football

In The Hill piece you linked, the Trump administration’s deal on D.C.’s public golf courses sounds like good news on the surface: Langston and Rock Creek are set to stay with National Links Trust under a new long-term lease, while East Potomac remains open on an interim basis. But East Potomac is still the big question mark. The National Park Service is eyeing what it calls a “historic restoration,” and critics are worried that one of the most accessible public golf spots in the capital could become something shinier, more expensive, and a lot less public. Public golf is booming, but this is the reminder that the best munis are always one bad decision away from becoming someone’s vanity project. (Reuters)

Boo Weekley Gets His Moment

According to Christopher Powers of Golf Digest, Boo Weekley finally got his first PGA Tour Champions win at the Insperity Invitational, and yeah, it got emotional. Weekley won in his 64th Champions start, went bogey-free for the week, and picked up his first victory of any kind since 2013. For a guy who has always felt like one of golf’s true characters, this was a pretty perfect Champions Tour moment: a familiar name, a long wait, and a win that clearly meant a hell of a lot more than just another trophy. (GolfDigest.com)

Jeeno Thitikul Is Not Waiting Around

According to the Associated Press via ESPN, Jeeno Thitikul won the Mizuho Americas Open by four shots over Ruoning Yin, giving her a second LPGA title this season. The turning point came late, when Thitikul birdied 16 while Yin made bogey, turning a tight finish into a comfortable one. The bigger takeaway: the LPGA is not short on star power or depth. Nelly Korda still looms over everything, but Thitikul is stacking wins, and the competition at the top of the women’s game keeps getting better. (ESPN)

The PGA Championship Hype Machine Is Officially Running

According to Keith Stewart of Golf Digest, Rory McIlroy sits atop the PGA Championship power rankings heading to Aronimink, ahead of Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Young, Xander Schauffele, and Matt Fitzpatrick. The setup is pretty perfect: Rory is chasing another major after winning the Masters, Scottie is the defending PGA champ, Bryson and Rahm are still lurking with LIV baggage attached, and Aronimink gives us a proper old-school major venue. After weeks of tour politics, Signature Event grumbling, and LIV chaos, it is nice to get back to the simple stuff: a stacked major field, a classic course, and a leaderboard that should actually matter. (GolfDigest.com)

The Truist Championship was wide open on Sunday.

Plenty of names were within striking distance. Alex Fitzpatrick had the overnight lead. Rickie Fowler, Cameron Young, Nicolai Højgaard, Tommy Fleetwood, and a handful of others were all close enough to make things interesting.

But it was Kristoffer Reitan, the 28-year-old from Norway, who stepped up, closed the deal, and walked away with the trophy and the signature-event check.

Not bad for a guy still getting settled on the PGA TOUR.

Reitan’s Breakthrough Came Fast

Reitan’s road here has not exactly been smooth.

He had a brief stop at Texas before choosing the professional route, then went through the grind of trying to establish himself in Europe. He has spoken openly about the ups and downs, but eventually found his footing again.

Last year, he finished inside the top 10 on the Race to Dubai, earned his PGA TOUR card, yet hadn’t finished in the Top 10 in a single event this year.

Then came Quail Hollow.

Reitan began Sunday one shot behind Alex Fitzpatrick, but stayed steady while the leaderboard around him got chaotic. He closed with a 2-under 69, finished at 15-under, and beat Rickie Fowler and Nicolai Højgaard by two shots.

That is a life-changing week – good for him.

Alex Fitzpatrick Was Right There

Alex Fitzpatrick started the day with a one-shot lead and had a real chance to win his first solo PGA TOUR event.

Instead, Sunday got away from him.

He shot 2-over on the day and finished solo fourth, which is still a great result, but it will probably sting considering where he stood entering the final round.

Still, Fitzpatrick has been playing well since getting his PGA TOUR card, and this feels more like a sign of things to come than a collapse to worry about.

Meanwhile, his brother Matt cooled off with a T52 finish after his own ridiculous run of three wins in three starts.

Rickie And Nicolai Made Their Sunday Push

Rickie Fowler and Nicolai Højgaard both finished T2, two shots behind Reitan.

For Fowler, it was another reminder that he still has plenty left when the putter cooperates and the ball-striking shows up.

For Højgaard, it was another strong week from a player who keeps looking more and more comfortable on big stages.

Neither one got the trophy, but both made Reitan earn it.

Cam Young Gave Us All A Putting Reminder

Cameron Young has been one of the hottest players on the planet lately.

And yet, on Sunday, he missed multiple putts inside four feet.

You know, just in case you think you should make every four-footer.

Young still finished T10, but the round was a good reminder that even the best players in the world can look human at times.

Other Notable Finishes

  • Tommy Fleetwood: T5
  • Ludvig Åberg: T8
  • Cameron Young: T10
  • Rory McIlroy: T19
  • Matt Fitzpatrick: T52

What’s Next?

The PGA Championship at Aronimink.

Odds For The 2026 PGA Championship

Odds are subject to change and may vary by sportsbook.

Player Odds
Scottie Scheffler +450
Rory McIlroy +850
Cameron Young +1200
Jon Rahm +1600
Bryson DeChambeau +1800
Xander Schauffele +1800
Ludvig Åberg +2000
Matt Fitzpatrick +2200
Tommy Fleetwood +2200
Brooks Koepka +4000
Collin Morikawa +4000
Justin Thomas +4000

We’ll see you Wednesday with our PGA Championship picks.

A mix of comeback math, golf-boom growing pains, a long-overdue first at St Andrews, a public course getting dragged into White House demolition drama, and YouTube golf continuing its march into the mainstream.

→ Bryson’s PGA Tour Comeback Might Not Be That Complicated
Bryson DeChambeau says a potential return to the PGA Tour might come down less to executives and more to whether the players actually want him back. He also raised questions about how much freedom he’d have to keep creating content around tournaments, which is kind of the whole Bryson machine now. The funny part? The Tour says players can already post during practice rounds and pro-am days, so the biggest hurdle might not be the rules. It might just be the room. (Skratch Golf)

→ Golf Got Too Popular and Now Kids Can’t Get Tee Times
The golf boom has been great for courses, brands, and anyone selling $12 beers at the turn. But there’s a problem nobody loves talking about: junior golfers are getting squeezed. Tee sheets are packed, access is tighter, and the kids who are supposed to be the future of the game are sometimes stuck indoors hitting into simulators instead of actually playing. Great problem for the industry. Not so great if you’re 13 and just want to get on the course. (GolfDigest.com)

→ It Only Took The R&A 272 Years
The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews named Claire Dowling as the first woman captain in its 272-year history. That’s a big deal, even if the timeline makes you do a double take. The club only opened membership to women in 2014, and now Dowling will take over as captain in September. Progress is progress — even when it shows up a few centuries late. (The Guardian)

→ White House Rubble Got Dumped On A Golf Course. Now There’s Toxic Metal Drama
Debris from the White House East Wing demolition was dumped at East Potomac Golf Links, the same public D.C. course already caught up in renovation controversy. According to Fortune, a National Park Service report found the soil tested positive for lead, chromium, and other toxic metals, while the Department of the Interior says the project passed legal safety standards. Either way, “public golf course becomes dumping ground for White House rubble” is not exactly the feel-good muni story of the year. (Fortune)

→ YouTube Golf Just Got Called Up To The Big Leagues
Grant Horvat and the Bryan Bros are joining Wasserman’s newly rebranded agency, The Team, after it acquired Provisions Golf. Translation: YouTube golf is not some side corner of the sport anymore. These guys are getting folded into the same kind of machine that represents major athletes, runs events, and knows how to turn attention into money. The line between “golf influencer” and “golf business” is basically gone. (frontofficesports.com)